Remember when we used to camp?? Well, you can see that motels have their advantages.....when loading bikes, it can take 4+ trips with bags, etc or just one trip with the baggage cart.
Today we travelled west on I 70 through the spectacular Glenwood Canyon and on to Grand Junction. From there we headed north on route 139 through a series of canyons and up and over Douglas Pass (see picture looking down into valley to upcoming road). The road up the 8,500 foot pass had lots of tight curves and switchbacks, but the weather was great and not too cold. Driving twisty mountain roads is fun but also exhausting due to the intense concentration required. Bev was thirsty afterwards.
Later in the afternoon we saw dark clouds ahead (remember that earlier blog on rain?). We decided to don raingear and head off, after all we only had 33 miles to go.....NOPE wrong decision !! we hit intense thunderstorms with winds higher than we have ever experienced. Two storm fronts were colliding and Bev could hardly hold the bike up, we had to do a U-turn on the 2 lane highway (THAT was a bit scarey with traffic and the gusts) and went back to the town of Dinosaur (top northwest of Colorado). We'll try for Utah again tomorrow. The next day we met a couple in Vernal Utah who has passed us in a car the previous afternoon when we were doing our U-turn. They said that shortly after passing us they drove into rain that was so heavy that they could not see and had to pull over to the side of the road till it passed, adding that they'd never have seen us had we been pulled over at that point! Good thing we turned around.
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